Summer and Fall 2009

This is a long-time-coming update to our blog for the Summer and Fall of 2009 by date. Enjoy!


June 2-6: Molly flew to LA for grand-daughter Megan’s High School graduation in Thousand Oaks and a visit with Lynda. For her graduation present, Molly made Megan a beautiful quilt that she had been working on for quite a while. It was full of bright colors and she really enjoyed it.

June 6: While Molly was in LA, I went to the Sauvie Island Yacht Club picnic in Scappoose. It was good to see all the old gang again, even though we don’t have a boat anymore. They are initiating a new membership, however, for those who have sold their cruising boats. It’s good to still belong!

June 18: One of the first thing we did when we got back was to have dinner with Carrie and Mark and his son. Carrie has moved out of her apartment and in with Mark. They are waiting until the kids get out of school for any future plans. At dinner I met a high school chum, Roger Rimers, and had a good chat and reminiscing about our other classmates. We said we should get everybody that’s local together for a mini reunion. It seems like we are starting to loose some of them.

June 22 – 26: We had a great opportunity to RV to Bullards Beach State Park in Bandon with Tom & Sue Stose, Pat & Susan Caniff, and Tom & Cathy Edwards, to visit Tom & Sue’s RV friends that were hosts at the Bandon Lighthouse this summer. Good time had by all! Then we motored up the 101 to South Beach, Newport for a few days and visited the Oregon Coast Aquarium before heading back to Salem.

July 10 – 12: Molly & JoAnn went to Sisters, Oregon for the annual Quilt Show there. They drove over to Bend and stayed with MaryAnn and family. While there, they met up with JoAnn’s friend Susie Irwin to catch up on things. The quilt show was another very crowed event but the quilts were something to see.

July 16 – August 9: When I was informed that the new Desert Belle had arrived at Saguaro Lake, I flew to Mesa to work on it for while. I stayed in our park-model and boat-owner David lent me his car for the month. The temps were bouncing around 113-114 for the highs. I called Molly everyday and one day when the temperature only 107, she didn’t have any sympathy for me, because it was 107 in Salem that day too. For the next month I did quite a bit of work from painting, and cleaning, to ordering and picking up new carpet and linoleum. When almost complete we took it out for sea trials and finally took our first passengers out on August 8th. By then I had had enough of the heat and work, so flew home on the 9th and let the local captain take it from there. That’s when I’ll take the helm again at the start of the Fall season in October.

July 28: Molly signed up to Face Book this summer and made contact with several high school chums. We made arrangements with one of her friends Pat Short and her husband in Vancouver, WA for lunch to catch up on old times. Isn’t the internet great!

August 11: Grand-daughters Megan and Brianna came for a visit this summer all by themselves. We picked them up at the Portland Airport, but they stayed with Aunt JoAnn because she had more room and their cousin Karen was also visiting at the time. But they were close and we did quite a bit with them while they were here.

September 3: We found out that the "check engine" light on the Toyota was going to run into much more money than we were willing to put back into the car…again, so we started looking for another Rav 4 or a Honda CRV. Finally bought a 2 year old CRV in Salem with only 12,000 miles on it. The two criteria for the new car were, it had to be towable behind the RV, and any color but black (since both of our last two cars were black and not compatible with Arizona sun). We had a hitch put on it as part of the bargain so we could tow a trailer to Mesa, AZ.

September 8-9: We made a trip to Rockaway to visit friends Bud & Lisa Root at their time-share. We had great outings for eating, shopping, and just hanging around catching up. And this was the first trip in the new car.

September 17-18: Our Apache Wells friends Jim and Char from Wisconsin made a surprise visit to the Northwest. They called and we made arrangements to meet them in Portland. We spent a few days with them showing them the best Oregon had to offer for the newcomers who had never been here before. We stayed in an inn near the airport and on the first day of their visit we took them up the Columbia River Gorge scenic highway to Crown Point, Multnomah Falls, Bonneville Dam, up to Hood River, and around Mt. Hood with a stop at Timberline Lodge. The next day we took them to the Oregon coast at Cannon Beach for a bit of shopping and on to Seaside and Astoria with a visit to the Astor Column and a ride on the trolley. Then we made a quick trip back up the Columbia River to Portland. It was great seeing them and having them contact us during their vacation.

September 23: We decided to leave the RV in Salem this winter since we bought the park-model in Apache Wells RV Resort last year. There didn’t seem to be any reason to drive it down and spend all that money for fuel. Molly wanted a washer and dryer put in the park-model this fall, so we decided to buy it in Oregon with no sales tax, clear out our storage unit, and take most of it to Mesa in a U-Haul trailer. It took us only three days going very slow with the new car pulling the trailer at its maximum load.

We arrived in Mesa Sept. 25, unloaded the trailer, but couldn’t put anything away because we were having some remodeling done in the Arizona Room for the washer and dryer. They needed to get into the attached shed for plumbing, so I had to take everything out of there too. The carport was stacked with several rows of boxes and shelves. What was estimated to be a three-day remodel job, turned into a week and a half. We just kept coming up with "one-more-thing" as long as you’re here. But the final job was just what we wanted. It got done just in time for Molly to wash clothes for her trip the next day back to Oregon.

October 15 – 22: Molly flew back to Oregon to go to a quilt retreat up in the Cascades with sister JoAnn. So she missed putting all the boxes away in the storage shed and in every little hidey-whole after the remodel. All this while I was captaining the new boat on Saguaro Lake. But she had a great retreat and we wouldn’t want her to miss that.

October 23 – 29: Sister Jodene finally came to visit us here in Mesa the day after Molly got back from the quilting retreat. She wanted to see the place and go for a ride on the new Desert Belle. We showed her the area, took her to our favorite restaurants, and it appears she had a good time. She was the first one to stay in the newly remodeled Arizona Room.

November 8 – 12: Right after Jodene left, we got ready to fly to Las Vegas for our 35th anniversary. Tom & Sue Stose were flying in from Portland to share their 40th anniversary with us. Their anniversary is on Nov. 8th, and ours is on the 9th, so we have shared that event with them on several occasions in Portland and in Mexico. The first night we got there we went to see the finalists of the "America’s Got Talent" TV show. Then the next night we had tickets for "Jersey Boys". Molly & I had seen the show in Phoenix last year, but had horrible seats. So we were thrilled to see it again and enjoy it with good friends. Again, the show was superb! Tom wasn’t feeling all that great after a cold, so we had plenty of time to just lay back and enjoy a luxurious room in the brand new Trump International tower.

Albion Remembered

After looking through some of the pictures we've taken over the 12 years we've had Albion, I got the idea of selecting a number of representative photos and making a slide show of them on our blog. Please enjoy! [To watch a slideshow with larger photos and slower speed, click on the lower left icon and then "Albion". Then select "slideshow" on the web album page. A photo may be downloaded by right clicking on the photo and selecting "Save photo as".]

Heading back to Oregon the long way home

The following blog entrys are some emails sent back to family and friends about our trip back from Mesa to Oregon. We decided to take the long way home since we won't be taking the RV back down to Mesa next fall and the fuel prices were very reasonable. We will just be driving the car down and staying in our Park Model.

5/8/09 On The Road Again:
Hi guys;

Cortez, Colorado:

Just a quick update of our travels. We left Mesa last Friday (5/1/09) and didn't go too far for our first RV miles in 7 months. We stayed at a Coast-to-Coast park near Overgaard, AZ. As I was setting up the computer, I realized I didn't have the power cord . We looked at the time and realized we still could make a quick trip back to Mesa (135 miles) in the car to get the power cord. We got back about 8:30 pm.

The next day we visited a good cruising friend in Show Low (Irene Harlander--Hiafin). She recently lost her husband, Lou, and thought we should stop by and spend some time. We had a good visit and then went on to Sun Valley, AZ at the Root 66 RV park (Passport America). And yes, that's how they spell it!!! Since we got there late, we decided to spend two nights there and watch Tiger play his final round on Sunday. It was a time to finally get everything located and unpacked.

We took our time on Monday and headed up to Canyon de Chelly> in NE Arizona. We checked into their campground and made reservations to take the day-long trip down into the canyon. Believe me, it was a trip well worth the jerking and bumping ride, as they say in the canyon, these trips are called "shake & bake". Of course Molly had to buy some of the beautiful <Navaho wares that were displayed at some of the stops.

On Wednesday, it was another short day to Cortez, Colorado. We drove up into the Mesa Verde National Park> to make reservations for a few of the tours to see the cliff dwellings. The tours were at the far end of the park so it was going to be about a 30 mile drive from our park in the morning. We left early Thursday morning and spent the entire day hiking in to some of the ruins and driving to see others. Got pictures--will share!

The weather so far has been just great, in the mid 80's. It's in the low 100's back in Mesa, left just in time again.

Today we head off to Durango, CO (another very short trip) for another couple days so we can take the Durango to Silverton steam train ride again. We took it back in 2000, but decided it was so much fun and such a scenic ride, that we would do it again. This time we would take the train up the canyon, but take the bus back to make it a little shorter day.

Well, that's it for catching up. We will be going on through Colorado (Colorado Springs, Denver, etc.), then up through eastern Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, where we will stop in Pasco and take a look at the "new" Desert Belle that will be heading to Saguaro Lake later this summer. And then we will head back down the Columbia to Portland and Salem where we will probably be staying at the Salem Elks again. We've been out of Mesa now for one week, and the time-line for the rest of the trip is negotiable, but will definitely be back by the first of June.
We had good signal for the internet, so thought we would catch you all up.

Thanks for reading,
Brent & Molly

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5/15/09 Update of travels home:
Hi again,

Just another update from the last spot in Cortez Colorado on our way home.

5/8/09 Cortez, CO to Durango:

As we left off with our last update, we were heading off for another short trip to Durango, CO. It was in fact a very short trip of only 58 miles and just over an hour. We stayed in a real nice Coast-to-Coast park north of Durango on the Amimas River>. We were going to head back into town to get our steam train tickets to Silverton for the next day, but the park check-in person said she could arrange them for us. So we could just relaxed the rest of the day and read our books. We asked about nearby restaurants and she suggested a great steakhouse just down the road, but the "rare" prime ribs were over-done. But still a nice, unique restaurant.

Next day we headed into Durango very early to get our ticket confirmations at 7:30. We were in one of the nicer cars and got a "free" <Durango to Silverton RR mug. At first we were wondering if we should do this trip again since we did it nine years ago when passing through Colorado. But were pleasantly surprised at the renewed experience. There was much more water in the river and much more snow in the mountains than the August 2000 trip. Anyway, took lots of pictures, had a great lunch in Silverton, bought Molly some more unique ear rings, and enjoyed the bus ride back> through the 13 and 14,000+ foot> mountains to Durango.

We enjoyed the RV park so well, we decided to stay an extra day……just because we could! It allowed us to travel around the town of Durango, go to a local quilting shop for Molly to buy another project, and have dinner in town.

5/11/09 Durango to Blanca:

Yeah, who ever heard of Blanca, Colorado? To drive the 184 miles we had to climb over an 11,000 foot pass that was spectacular with snow all over along side the road. There was a Passport America park in Blanca, and it was just 20 miles from the newest <National Park called the Great Sand Dunes N.P. and Preserve. We drove up and really enjoyed the site of enormous sand dunes (750’ high)> tucked up in the corner of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The prevailing winds blow the sand to the northeast where it is picked up by a stream that transports the sand back to the southwest, perpetual motion!

In the morning after showing, I noticed water running out from beneath the RV. It was coming from the fresh water tank, which seemed to be overflowing, even though the "tank fill" lever was in the off position. Since we had another nearly 10,000 foot pass to go over, we drained most the fresh water tank and would examine the cause of the problem more closely later.

5/12/09 Blanca to Denver:

This was our longest day of travel so far at 220 miles, still not long by our standards, but on this trip we have just been taking it easy. In fact we were going to stop at the Colorado Spring Elks lodge for the night, but we were there by 11:30 and decided another hour or two to the Westminster Elks just north of Denver would be ok. It would still be an easy day and we would be beyond down town Denver to avoid the morning traffic for the next days travel. Another camper at Colorado Springs Elks recommended this lodge. Upon getting to Westminster, we enjoyed another fine prime rib dinner at the lodge and retired for the evening.

5/14/09 Denver to Casper, WY:

We thought we would finally put on some miles today and head for Kaycee, WY (340 mi), but the strong winds today (up to 35 mph) made it a difficult drive and very tiring. Our next option was Casper (only 280 mi) at a Passport America park. The only bright spot today was filling up with fuel. The needle was only on ½ tank, but we had gone 534 miles on that amount giving us 11.0 miles/gal at a price of only $2.18/gal for the diesel.

5/15/09 Casper to Billings, MT:

We were up early today and stopped for breakfast before we even hit the freeway, and were on the road again by 8:20. We thought we would make some miles before the wind started begin. It did, and started raining too, our first rainy day. Probably getting us used to typical Oregon weather again. There just seems to a lot of nothing in Eastern Wyoming, just miles and miles of miles and miles.

We did, however, stop for a short re-visit of the <Little Bighorn Battlefield (Montana). We watched a video and took some pictures in the rain, and then headed up to Billings for an over-night at the local Wal Mart. Today was still a long day making 286 miles and putting up with some head winds. More Montana tomorrow!

Thanks for reading. Keep in touch. More later!
Brent

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5/20/09 Kennewick—On the Road Home:
Hi everybody;

This will probably be the last update of our travels home. We are presently in Kennewick and heading home tomorrow. Here is a run-down of the past several days.

5/16/09 Billings to Deer Lodge, MT (262 mi):

Yeah, I know, where the hell is Deer Lodge Montana? Well it’s about 40 miles north of Butte and has a Coast-to-Coast Good Neighbor Park here. All freeway today and a beautiful valley drive up the Yellowstone River and the Clarks Fork of the Flathead River. We can’t get over how everything is so GREEN! The snow is still heavy in the adjacent mountains and the rivers are full. We started wondering about the road conditions going over Lolo Pass (5233’) between Missoula, MT and Lewiston, ID, our planned route. But after calling the road condition line, we found it would be clear over the pass. And when we went over the continental divide today at 6453’ it was clear with the snow level several thousand feet higher.

We have seen considerable wildlife on our trip so far. Through Wyoming we saw Pronghorn Antelope around every turn. Today we saw a Turkey along side the freeway shoulder and a moose eating shrubs along side the Yellowstone River as we crossed it. We have seen several herds of mule deer and keep our eyes open to identify the birds as we pass. Today we saw several flocks of White Pelicans, Osprey, and of course Red-tailed Hawks.

5/17/09 Deer Lodge to Kamiah, ID (229 mi)

Today was just a nice drive down the Clark Fork of the Flathead River to Missoula and then a fairly quick trip to the top of Lolo Pass> going into Idaho. This is the same pass that Lewis and Clark traveled over during their journey to and from the Pacific and that Chief Joseph passed over while trying to elude the Calvary on his way to Canada, before he was stopped. There was still snow on the pass, but the road was clear.

The next leg of the trip was down a very curvy road on the Lochsa and Clearwater Rivers. We eventually got to our Coast to Coast park in Kamiah, Idaho and relaxed for the rest of the day and the next. It was a very pleasant little community.

5/19/09 Kamiah to Kennewick, WA (204 mi)

Today we got up early, had breakfast at the park restaurant and hit the road. Last night it thundered, lightninged, and poured down rain. This morning it was fresh and green with some higher fog and a little sprinkle here and there. It was a beautiful trip down the Clearwater to Lewiston, but the wind just kept increasing until it was at least 35 mph. And after we left Lewiston, it was on our side making it a very jerky ride trying to stay in our lane.

Still blowing in Kennewick, we found the Elks lodge where we set up our dry camp in the parking lot and then tried to find the Columbia Voyager (aka the new Desert Belle). After considerable driving around and asking questions we located it in Richland, WA and called Dick Bonney (the other Desert Belle captain) to let him know where it was located. We were going to meet the existing captain and owner tomorrow and go for a test drive. We met Dick and his crewman, Gary, along with their wives, for dinner and to discuss the trip tomorrow.

5/20/09 Kennewick, WA

Today we slept late, then went out to breakfast and met everybody at the dock to discuss the working systems on the boat and take it out for a spin. WOW! What a pleasure. The 150 passenger boat handled great and will be a great asset for Saguaro Lake with dinner and entertainment cruises. We spent three hours going over the boat and took it out for some maneuvering practice in the basin and on the Columbia. We encouraged the captain to visit the boat after they moved it to Saguaro Lake and got it all put back together, and he said he would.

Tomorrow, it’s just a quick trip on down the Columbia to Gresham to get our mail at Jeanette’s and then over to Vancouver to spend a day or two with Tom and Sue at their place to catch up. Then it will be on to the Salem Elks again where we will be hanging it up for the summer.

Keep in touch!
Brent

Albion Sold

After a long hard decision, Molly & I have decided to make Mesa, Arizona and working on the Desert Belle Paddleboat on Saguaro Lake (www.desertbelle.com), our winter time activity for the foreseeable future. We came here in the fall of 2006 to captain the Desert Belle so I could get the necessary days to renew my captain’s license with the Coast Guard. After that season, we were going to return to Albion the next winter season to continue cruising in Mexico.

However, the owners made it very attractive for me to come again the next season. It was a great opportunity. We liked the area, we liked the RV park we were in, we loved the lake and the vessel, and we liked the opportunity to meet new people every day. So we decided to return to Mesa in the fall of 2007 and let Albion sit in the Mexican sun again in Marina Seca, San Carlos, one more year.

This year (fall, 2008) we returned again to Mesa in the RV and finally bought a comfortable park model with a nice Arizona Room. With that and the decision to make the Desert Belle Paddleboat a long-term prospect, we decided to put Albion up for sale. If she didn’t sell by the end of this tourist season in May 2009, we would take her back to the Northwest waters to use periodically in the San Juans or Canadian Gulf Islands during the summer.

Wouldn’t you know it, shortly after we made that decision, we had an offer and it was finalized by the end of the year. We are now boatless in Mesa…..except for the Desert Belle paddleboat. It was difficult to sell her, but it made sense for what we were doing and what looks to be a long-term situation here.

We are glad Albion went to a couple that appreciates her, will take good care of her and have as many great adventures as we did.

Summer of '08

As we headed back to Oregon, the fuel prices were at an all time high. We topped off in Mesa, which was the lowest price at $4.65/gal (diesel), and the highest paid was in Pendelton at $4.79/gal. We paid a total of $708 for 149 gallons for 1535 miles, which averaged 10.3 miles per gallon. We traveled the Mesa-Vegas-Salt Lake City-Boise-Portland route. Just before Provo, Utah, we discovered that we had lost our hydraulic fluid reservoir for the jacks. So we couldn’t put the jacks down for the rest of the trip and several weeks while in Salem. When we eventually got it replaced and installed it cost about $700.

We did make it almost home before we stopped in Hillsboro for granddaughter Emily’s graduation party from Art Tech High School in Wilsonville. Then it was on to the Salem Elks for the summer.


In mid June, David Smith (Desert Belle owner) called and asked us to take a trip to Klamath Falls to evaluate a side-paddle boat for sale that they may purchase for Saguaro Lake. We asked Dick and Colleen Bonney (the other captain) to take the trip with us and examine the engine. The boat needed work and we gave David our opinions.

Shortly after that, Molly & I headed down to the South Umpqua Lighthouse at Winchester Bay to visit Nada and Dorsey Hensley. They had volunteered as tour guides and office help for a month. It was a great outing and we stayed in a nice little motel on the Winchester Bay waterfront.

On July 1st, Molly and I took our real vacation and flew to Chicago to visit Dan & Cathy. They picked us up and then drove to their new place in Elkhart, Indiana. We had a book of 1000 things to do before you die, and asked them if they didn’t have any specific agenda, if we could see some of these places. We got to check off: Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, Shipshewana, Amish Acres in Nappanee, and The 100-mile Heritage Trail. Along the way we also did and saw many other interesting things such as the RV Hall of Fame Museum. We spent the fourth of July out on their pontoon boat watching the fireworks, and also did a poker run on their lake.

The last few days before flying home was spend in Chicago marking off some of the 1000 things there. We stayed in a high rise condo over looking the harbor that we had reserved through a friend of a friend of Cathy’s. Some of the 1000 things included: Viewing Chicago’s Architecture, Chicago’s Comedy Scene at Second City, eating Chicago-Style Pizza at Uno Pizzeria, Millennium Park (which we over-looked from our condo), the Shedd Aquarium, Wrigley Field, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio in Oak Park, and on the way to the airport we stopped at Superdawg for their well known hot dogs. One of the neatest things experienced in the city was their transit system. We bought a two-day pass on the Elevated Railway (the EL) and traveled all over the city by getting on and off where ever we wanted. It was a great time filled with a lot of activities.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home was one of several of his houses that we have visited now with Cathy. She got us into appreciating his architecture when we were on our Route 66 trip and visited the Dana House in Springfield, IL. When she visited us in Mesa we toured his studio in Phoenix, Taliesin West. So when we got back to Salem, we decided to visit his only house designed in Oregon at the Oregon Gardens. It was called the Gordon House and was an example of his inexpensive production models.

In August, we decided to travel to the Long Beach Peninsula in the RV to visit Pat & Susan Canniff and Tom & Kathy Edward’s RV lots there. We also visited Dick & Colleen Bonney who lived just across the lake. The weather was rainy and blowing during the visit, but we had a good time. Then we three couples with RV’s headed down to Cathlamet, Washington to the Cruiser’s Rendezvous and the annual pot-luck dinner. It was fun reminiscing with the old Mexican Cruisers.

Bud and Lisa Root invited us to stay in their Time-Share in Rockaway Beach on the Oregon coast during early September. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to just kick back and relax for a week. Thank you Bud & Lisa!

In late September, we finally had to say goodbye to Oregon again and head back to Mesa for the winter tourist season on Saguaro Lake. We decided to head down I-5 through California and then over to Mesa on I-10. With careful planning I only had to stop for fuel once in California. The fuel price was less than this spring ranging from $4.02 in Roseburg, Oregon to $3.61 in Quartzite, Arizona. We paid a total of $533 for 139 gallons for 1377 miles, which averaged of 9.9 miles per gallon. This appeared to be a better route even though it was through California.

When we got into our normal space at Apache Wells RV Resort, I gave David a call to let him know we were back in town. He quickly told me I could do a charter the next day if I wanted. The charter, to make a long story short, was less than ideal. Those people will probably not get the same annual charter that they’ve gotten in the past for their Rosh Hashanah holiday.

Molly flew back to Oregon to attend a quilting retreat in the Cascade Mountains with her sister Joann. Molly had left her machine in Oregon so she wouldn’t have to take it on the plane and Tom & Sue Stose had offered to drive her back to Mesa since they were heading down right after the retreat. Molly had a great time and has already signed up for next year.

While they were driving back, a lady we had talked to about buying a Park-Model here in the park last season, stopped by and made us a very reasonable offer. I called Molly, and she said, "Buy It"! So when she and Tom & Sue arrived, they had a nice furnished place to stay for several days while visiting. They like to tell friends that Molly and Brent are really nice, they even bought us a place just to stay while visiting. It was entirely furnished and had a very comfortable Arizona Room attached with it's own bathroom and large closet.

While Molly was still in Oregon, her sister Joann called. They had had so much fun that she treatened that Molly wasn't going to come back to Mesa until I could find her a place that she could have her sewing machine up all the time rather than continually having to put it away after using it in the RV. So we HAD to buy it! Now Molly has her own sewing machine table in the Arizona Room where she can quilt to her hearts content

Jeanette (Molly’s daughter) had previously been arranging with me for a surprise for Molly’s up coming birthday. Jeanette and Lynda (other daughter) were going to fly in and surprise her. Strangely enough, I kept the secret! At about 9:00 pm on October 31, I got up and said I though I would go get her a birthday present. Molly looked very quizitive and unbelieving. We normally go to bed about that time and watch TV in bed. I told her that I would be gone about two hours and that she may want to stay up and get dressed. More quizitive looks! She though maybe someone may be flying in to surprise her, but the airport is only 20 minutes away. After picking up Lynda from the SW terminal, we waited for about 45 minutes for Jeanette to arrive at the Alaska terminal. When we drove in Molly couldn’t believe it and was showing great emotion, seeing both girls together and knowing they loved her enough to travel a great distance to spend a few days with her on her birthday. The stayed for three nights in our "new condo" so they could have some time to themselves as well.

Shortly after that, our Tucson friends Nada and Dorsey came to spend a night in the park model. We had owned it now for three weeks and we hadn’t even spent a night in it ourselves. Although on Sunday 11/9 we had our HD satellite installed, so on Monday the 10th we finally moved into our "new condo".

I’ll stop our "Summer" summary here with this news. I will continue to update this blog as new events unfold or when I get time. Thanks for caring enough to read it.

Brent

Mesa, Arizona '07 - '08

The last BLOG entry ended with high expectations of getting down to Albion to do some cruising this winter, but those expectations quickly evaporated when time kept slipping away waiting for the fuel tank to be repaired. It was finally late December when we were notified it was fixed. The project that should have taken two weeks, took two months….but then again, it’s Mexico! Molly & I did a whirl-wind trip to San Carlos to close up the boat and move it back to the storage yard. We decided that maybe we would wait now until Spring to put Albion in the water to get it ready for some cruising in May, after the Desert Belle season ended.

The days in Mesa, however, were filled with company and other events. Horst & Bea Eberspaecher, and Will & Joann Gallant came up for the Christmas Light Parade on Saguaro Lake, which the Desert Belle always leads. And it is normally a company party with invited friends. Other friends that came for a complimentary trip this season included Bud & Lisa Root, and their friends Mike & Terry, <Nada & Dorsey Hensley, John & Barb Wilde, Earl & Marta Encell, Cathy Fleming, and Pat & Susan Caniff. Some of the other events we took these guests to included the Arizona Opry, Organ Stop Pizza, drive up the Apache Trail, Olive Mill, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West, our favorite restaurant Café Roma>, and the Broadway Palm dinner theater to see Hello Dolly.

<Cathy came from Elkhart, Indiana for a few days and then her, Bea, and Molly took off for L. A., California for Joann Gallant’s daughter Kristen's wedding in the Wayfarers Chapel. They were busy doing a lot of the busy work during the wedding and had a great time calling it this year’s "hen fest". Molly & I also were busy going to several plays and concerts including "Jersey Boys" at the ASU Gammage Auditorium, "SWING" and "Buddy" at the Broadway Palm dinner theater, Smothers Brothers, Bobby Rydell & Lesley Gore at several CalAm RV parks, and Wyatt Earp by Wyatt Earp (a grand nephew of THE Wyatt Earp) at the Palace Saloon>, one of the original saloons on Whiskey Row in Prescott, Arizona. We also made a trip up to Globe, AZ to tour the <Besh-Ba-Gowah Pueblo. It was a fascinating site that has done some reconstructing of some of the ancient indian pueblo buildings so you can go inside and climb around seeing what they were like when in use.

At the end of March, we went to Sunsites, Arizona to stay with Horst & Bea, and were also joined by Will & Joann. We made a trip through <Bisbee viewing the "hole" left from copper mining, and then spent the better part of a day in Tombstone. David Smith (Desert Belle owner) sponsored the Tombstone portion of the trip for extra work I had performed. He told us to have a time fun on him and recommended several sights not to miss. And it was a blast, eating in Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and sitting at the <same table that Wyatt Earp had sat at during his time there. We sent an email postcard back to David thanking him for the trip. But as always, the girls got a little rowdy>!

We spend the next day touring the <Chiricahua N.M. on the East side of the valley from where Horst & Bea live. The rock formations there are something to behold. The next day we made a short trip up in back of Horst & Bea’s home to the Cochise Stronghold, where the great Apache chief was able to avoid discovery and capture. He is buried up there somewhere but the only white man that know where is his friend Tom Jeffords. We hiked around some the short trails and identified some of the plants>. Again, a great time with great friends.

After the Desert Belle peak season ended on May 1st, we headed down to San Carlos and Albion. In March I had gone down and put her in a slip at Marina Real, just north of San Carlos. We put Albion up for sale with the idea of buying a park-model in Apache Wells RV Resort since our Mesa location looked like it was going to be a long-term opportunity on the Desert Belle and we weren’t getting down to the boat during the winter anymore. If the boat didn’t sell by the next Spring we would consider taking it back to the Northwest for periodic summer cruising. The plan was to spend the month of May working on the boat making it pretty and then cruising the Sea of Cortez for a few weeks. However, the following is an email we wrote back to fellow cruisers about what happened during that month.

5/14/08
Albion's near disaster
Howdy fellow cruisers;

Albion is safe in the work yard at Marina Real and Molly & I are back in Tucson to pick up a boat part for Albion.

It all started Saturday. I had spent the day polishing the stainless stanchions, bow pulpit, and lifelines and decided that was enough for the day in the 100 degree heat. While we were sitting in the cockpit relaxing I decided to start the engine and make sure it started and operated properly. We had been on the boat now for a week cleaning and getting things fixed. And Albion had been at the dock in Marina Real> for a month and a half. So it was time to make sure it still ran. It started fine, shifted into forward and reverse just fine, and then I shut it off. As usual, I check the normally dry engine "room" for any leaks. IT WAS FULL OF WATER!!!! And I heard water gushing in from the rear. I tore the bed apart to check the drip-less packing gland under it and the water was running in as though there was no packing gland there. The bellows had torn.

I spent the next hour and a half trying to get enough of the lip on the back portion of the bellows to clamp back onto the shaft boot. I could make the water slow down, but then it would spring eternal. While Molly watched the water run in and the bilge-pump pump it out, I ran over to San Carlos to see if I could get a replacement hose for the bellows. NO! I stopped at the work yard/dry storage at Marina Real to let them know I had an emergency and would have to have the boat hauled immediately. They said to check with the office. Ran to the office, made sure they knew it was an emergency....."the boat is sinking!!!", and they radioed the boys at the yard to get over here ASAP. As I got to the boat, two other dock guys were already there, helped me throw the lines loose and headed over to the ramp. By the time we motored over to the ramp.....bilge running the entire time....the trailer was there, and luckily for us it was near high tide....Albion needs more water for it's winged keel. The movers worked efficiently and in no time Albion was heading down the road to the dry work yard leaving a trail of water from the still running bilge pump!

Mi Casa (Mel & Sherry) graciously loaned us their RV to stay in until Albion is back in the water. The next day, a referred mechanic came by to help remove the shaft and get the drip-less packing gland and torn bellows off the shaft. To get the packing gland off, you first have to remove the coupler that holds the shaft to the transmission. It wouldn't move. He got a unique piece of equipment, something like a wheel puller, but try try try as we might.....it wouldn't come off. After discussing our options, the mechanic said he has never seen a coupler come off a shaft after it had been on as long as ours...about 9 years. He suggested cutting the shaft $$, pulling it out, having a new coupler and shaft made $$$$, and cutting a notch in the rudder $$$ to put the new shaft back in (rather than taking the rudder off). I eventually bowed to his expertise and he gave me the cutting grinder to cut the shaft and said he'd be back in an hour or so. I took the grinder up and took a big swallow....maybe I'll try ONE MORE TIME. I had put a scratch in the shaft when we started working with the puller to see if we were making any progress. As I took a second look, I thought maybe while we were doing all our discussing, the pressure MAY HAVE MOVED the coupler a fraction. I put another block on the propeller so it wouldn't turn, and tried with all my Swedish stubbornness one more time. IT SEEMED TO MOVE!!!! I tried it again, and again, and in about 20 minutes I had the coupler, the packing gland, and bellows off the shaft. YAHOO!!! The mechanic was very surprised when he returned and I was feeling like I won the lottery.

Back to the marine mart to order a new bellows, but they said I would have to order the entire packing gland $$$ and it would take two weeks. Not good enough! I called the manufacturer, PYI Inc., in Bellingham WA, ordered just the bellows $, and had it shipped on two day delivery to friends Nada and Dorsey's in Tucson while we went up there and waited. The part just arrived and is the correct part. Tomorrow we will be heading back to the boat in San Carlos, re-install the gland with the new bellows, put Albion back in the water to finish our work, take it for a sea trial, and put it up for sale (not sail).Just thought I would give our cruising friends a little update. Albion is scheduled for haul-out on May 28 after which we will drive back to Mesa to get the RV and head back to the Northwest for the summer.

[Update after we got back to San Carlos] The bellows went on, no problem and we launched the next day. But there was still a lot of work to do on the boat and by the time we got it pretty well complete, the nice cruising weather ended. We decided to run the boat back to San Carlos, haul out early, and put it back in dry storage in Marina Secca until sold or next Spring.

Summer & Fall '07

As many of you know Albion didn’t hit the water in the winter of ’06 – ‘07 in Mexico. We wintered in Mesa, Arizona, where Brent was Captain of the Desert Belle Paddleboat on Saguaro Lake.

This summer was a stay at home activity where we reunited with many friends and did a lot of things in Oregon that we had not done before. One of the nearby activities that we have driven by for years, was the < Air Museum in McMinnville. It was truly something to stop and see after all these years. Then there were a couple of Jet Boat trips on the Rogue River>, something that we have always wanted to do but were always too busy. And then we took in a couple of Shakespeare plays in Ashland. That is going to become a regular for us in future summers.

Also this summer we visited <Tom & Sue Stose up at their Detroit Lake campground that they were hosting. We stayed there a few days seeing all the work that is involved with camp hosting (at least all the work that Tom & Sue did) before heading over to Redmond for another FMCA RV Rally. The venders just seem to love to see us come, as described in the last BLOG. This year we decided to take the Crooked River Mystery Train trip>. It included a dinner and a mystery that started before you left the station with someone on the train platform getting shot. WHO DONE IT was the theme during the trip. It was a delight. Others that we met this summer at the Salem Elks included <John & Barb Wilde. They became real good friends as well as the hosts Jimmy and Brenda Holm. It was great to have picnics in the Elks park and help out with some of the chores. As we headed south, we decided to head to Klamath Marsh and visit John Snively’s new cabin> on the marsh. What a great spot to kick back and relax and watch birds right <from the porch.




This winter WAS going to be a return to Albion and do a little cruising before heading back up to Saguaro Lake for their peak season of February, March, and April. HOWEVER, the since the tour boat on the next lake up was going to be out of commission this winter because of a lake draw-down, the owners decided to pick up the slack by increasing our tours. They wanted us back enough to tell us to write any schedule we wanted and they would accept it. So we told them that to get some use of Albion this winter, I would have to have a couple of weeks off at a time to drive down to San Carlos (8 hr drive from Mesa), work on the boat or take a short cruise in the Sea. They agreed, so I’m driving the Desert Belle Paddleboat (http://www.desertbelle.com/) for two weeks and then taking two weeks off.

My first trip to Albion, however, found that it was going to be difficult to find an in-water slip to moor her. I finally located one in Marina Real, but while waiting for the slip to become available, I discovered a leak in the fuel tank. Unable to spend the time to work on it, I asked Jesus at Marina Secca to have his men fix it, and that I would be back in several weeks. That was "several" weeks ago now, and it still isn’t fixed…..Oh yeah, I forgot, IT’S MEXICO!!!
Well, WHEN Albion is fixed and WHEN we locate an empty slip in the San Carlos area, we will start our short limited cruising in the upper Sea of Cortez. In the meantime, if anyone is headed to the Phoenix/Mesa area this winter, be sure to call, stop by, and take a complementary 1 ½ hour narrated paddleboat tour on Saguaro Lake…..and yes I do the narration too! I will have to admit that this is a beautiful 10 mile long lake with canyons and cliffs and Saguaro cacti. It is hard to call it a job!